Page 84 of Thorn Season
I shifted toward him with a sweet smile. Pulled my specter back. “Win the game,” I said. “Then we’ll see.”
I slipped my flute into Keil’s hand and left him staring after me.
As it turned out, the theatrics of Budding Ball left little opportunity for dancing. Once the ballroom heaved with enough music and wine, those who sought amusement assembled on the dance floor, where red ribbons hung from the ceiling amid the silks. The kissers tied a ribbon around one wrist and weaved between the silk screens; the receivers followed the trail of these ribbons toward the promise of a kiss. It was a tangled, boisterous affair, made all the more chaotic by Carmen wrapping every kisser in their own ribbon and twirling them back out into the crowd.
I was kissing the cheek of an Avanish nobleman when the princess caught me. She spun me round and round inside my ribbon so fast that even my eye roll lost its trajectory. Then, with a devious twinkle and a little more force than necessary, Carmen thrust me away again.
I unraveled—skirts twisting, head spinning, silk gliding against my skin. My ribbon reached its end and I landed with a huff against a hard body.
I knew before looking that it belonged to Keil.
We stood in a crevice, red silks rippling as the game raged unseen around us. I was breathing heavily, flustered from the twirling, and when Keil’s eyes dipped over me, I grew doubly flustered.
Someone jostled against me and I winced, feeling a sharp tug on my earlobe. My hair had tangled around my chandelier earring. I lifted my hand—and jerked as the ribbon held me back.
Keil shifted closer. And he slowly reached for my ear.
The surrounding noise seemed to muffle, voices bleeding away, as Keil disentangled my earring. He worked with gentle care, freeing strand by strand, leaving patches of warmth wherever his fingersgrazed—my earlobe, my neck, my jaw. The little space grew heavy with our shared breaths, and he must have noticed my flush because he met my gaze as he finished, wicked amusement lighting his eyes.
“You’re free,” he whispered.
Then another tug—on mywrist—and the world rushed back to me as I was yanked by my ribbon into the crowd.
I followed the pull to Erik.
The king half smiled, pleased at his conquest, and, with another playful tug, asked me for a kiss—his first and only of the night. My instincts must have numbed since that day on the fields, because I leaned toward him without flinching. And as I pressed my lips to his cheek, I found Keil’s eyes in the crowd of red.
Keil’s throat bobbed under my stare, his honey-gold skin flaming with a shade I wanted to paint on a victory flag.
I didn’t know why I journeyed to the drawing room after the game ended. I only knew that I felt hot all over and a little lightheaded, and I needed the fresh air to cool off.
Coming up behind Keil on the balcony, I realized he’d needed to cool off, too.
He must have sensed my presence because he chuckled without turning. “If you were too shy to kiss me in front of the gentry, you could have said so.”
“How have you not already tripped on the train of your ego?”
“I pin it to my belt to keep it out of the way.”
I rolled my eyes, turning to leave... But the sky was an open geode tonight, clear and clustered with stars. A string of red paper lanterns encircled the railing, casting a rosy vignette on the stones. I told myself I was staying for this little pocket of enchantment. For the lush view of the gardens, twinkling below.
But as I joined Keil at the railing and glimpsed his growing smile, I knew that wasn’t true.
Still, I stood far enough away that I wouldn’t be tempted to lean toward his body heat. More lipstick splotches covered his face, some layered as if the poor girls had run out of room. His mouth was noticeably unmarked, which gave me a pang of relief.
Then Keil said, slow and soft, “He’s rather taken with you.”
And I knew I wasn’t the only one thinking about the unwelcome lips of others.
“Yes.” I sighed, lifting my face to the cool night air. “Apparently, I’m quite the catch.”
“Hmm,” Keil agreed.
I peered over my shoulder and found his gaze trailing the stretch of my neck, the sweep of my collarbone. He blinked, and his eyes landed on my face again, alight with new heat.
My cheeks tingled. So much for cooling off.
Then, for the first time, nervousness wriggled at the back of my mind. Because although we’d been alone in the palace before, our seclusion now felt different—heavy, with more secrets than one. And if anyone saw the look passing between us, they would realize what I hadn’t wanted to admit. What even Perla must have known but hadn’t possessed enough gumption to reveal.
